Monday, September 23, 2013

German Rouladen for two, cooked a little different with a little less fat and yet great taste.

There is more than one recipe out there for German Rouladen. Over time we will experiment and put out different styles from different areas and even some of our own creations. Just so you can try and learn how to create yourself.

The following is a very simple recipe for two people. At times you are in the mood for some good German style food , but do not want to cook huge meals. There is ways to avoid that.

We found some Beef Top Round Steak - thin cut while shopping. The package had about 1 lbs. Although it should be a little thinner, we thought it might work to create a quick good tasting meal.

Here is what you need:

2 slices of Beef Top Round Steak - about 1 lbs or less of good size

2 slices of cooked low fat ham

1 small onion or half an onion

2 pickles - anything goes

1 Rouladen Sauce Mix from Knorr or Maggi - easy to get online

Salt and Pepper

Some olive oil

Small pot

Preparation

Peel onion and slice thin

Cut two pickles ( not to big) lengthwise in thin slices

Lay out the meat and ham on separate plates.

Next cover the meat with the hot German mustard ( use other hot mustard if no access to Lowensenf or similar, you can also use medium mustard which will change the taste, as the original recipe asks for hot mustard).

Next cut the 2 ham slices in 4 equal pieces and lay two pieces on each of the beef portions.

Distribute the pickles evenly on the ham and top with some onions. Add salt and pepper to your liking over the entire prepared meat.

You can see that I centered the pickles and onions a little. That will make the rolling process easier.

Have about 8 toothpicks ready next to your plate.

Now roll from one side to the other, pressing lightly to make sure nothing falls out on the sides and secure with one tooth pick. Fold the ends so that they close the Rouladen and secure with one or two toothpicks, so nothing can fall out . I usually put another 1 or two in to make sure it all holds together.

Top View

End view

Add some oil to the pot and put on full heat. Once oil is hot, brown all sides of the Rouladen as good as you can. Then take pot of heat and rouladen out.

Add about 400 ml water to pot and put back on heat. Bring to a boil and stir Knorr Sauce mix into it until nicely distributed.

Turn down heat to low and put Rouladen back in pot.

Cook with lid on and on low heat for about 90 minutes.

Turning the Rouladen a few times in the process and adding water if needed.

The meat should be nice and tender. Try with a knife or fork.

You can serve those with potatoes, noodles or rice. It is a quick meal for lunch or dinner.

Let your imagination come into it when you prepare this side. We sometimes have them with red cabbage and sometimes just with some white bread.

It is a fast and easy to prepare meal and by using the ham instead of the bacon you save some calories, but might lose some of the special taste. However, it is something different to try.

Put all other ingredients in a bowl and knead it with your hand or a mixer until it becomes a big ball. Make sure that the butter is cold and not too soft. That makes it easier to prepare the dough (shortcrust). I like to use the palm of my hand to get the dough done well.

.

Step 3

Grease a 10 inch spring form with about 2 teaspoon of butter, bottom and sides of the form. Make sure the fat is everywhere. Otherwise you could get trouble to take the ready cake out of the spring form.

Step 5

Take ⅔ of the dough and put it in the greased spring form. The rest you need for the sprinkles. Then put on top of the dough the quartered plumps in circles. Crumble the leftover dough all over the plums.

Put the cake in the to 375° F preheated oven (electric) and bake it 40 - 45 minutes, until the sprinkles get a light brown color. The time depends a little on how your oven bakes. Let it cool down a little before you take the cake out of the form.

Best the plump cake taste light warm with heavy whipping cream. You also can put powdered sugar on the top.

Serve it with coffee or any beverage you like. I at times like a glass of cold milk.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Growing up in Germany our family used to make lots of fruit pies and used fresh food for desserts. One of my favorites always was the Strawberry Pie. Loved it with fresh whipping cream. It was a fast to make recipe which my mom and grandma used to make not only on special occasions, but just for daily consumption. In German coffee and cake is an institution and there is lots of bakery cafe shops where until this day people would meet at lunch time or simply for social purpose and have some bakery items or fresh cake. Strawberry being one of the favorite ones , if fresh strawberries are available.

The following is the recipe our family used to make and still makes on a regular base. You can never go wrong with that.

Ingredients

Dough:

6 oz. butter

8 oz. all purpose flour

4 oz. sugar

1 Package Vanilla sugar (= 2 teaspoons)

2 teaspoons baking powder

Topping:

1 pound fresh strawberries

Handful of blueberries (you also can use strawberries only - then yous need about 1.5 pounds of strawberries),

Clear Glaze

Heavy whipping cream for decoration

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 370°F.

2. Prepare a Quiche or pie crust pan (11 inch) with butter. The pan should be buttered completely, bottom and sides. It works best to use a baking brush for buttering the pan. Make sure the butter is not right out of the refrigerator so you can spread it easily.

3. Put all ingredients for the dough in a big bowl and knead with your hands a shortcrust. The dough should not be sticky. Use a little more flour if the dough is too sticky. You also should cover your hands with a little flour while kneading - so the dough does not get stuck on your hands and fingers.

Press the shortcrust carefully in the prepared quiche or pie crust pan. Bake the cake in the oven middle for about 15 minutes or until golden brown (should not take longer than 20 minutes).

4. While the dough is baking in the oven clean the fruits and cut the strawberries in half.

5. When the dough is done put it on a rack to cool down for about 20 minutes. Do not try to take it out of the form to early because it breaks easily. Take it out of the form after it has cooled down completely and place the berries as shown below. .

6. Prepare the glaze as described on the package. Normally you only need to mix the content of the package with 2 tablespoons of sugar and stir the mixture in 1 cup cold water or fruit juice. Bring to boil and let boil over medium heat for 1 minute. Cool for 1 minute, then spoon glaze evenly over berries.

7. You can decorate the cake with whipping cream as shown or create your own pattern.

You can prepare the dough without topping a day earlier and even freeze it until you need it. That means you can prepare more than one in advance and use it on the day of a bigger event just topping it with the fruit and whipping cream.

This cake is prepared really fast. I normally need no longer than 30 minutes all together without cooling time for the dough. Usually we have simple coffee with that. But you can have pretty much anything you like with it. I also like cold milk with it. But coffee is the number 1 choice.

Enjoy the cake and write us with any questions.

Tip:

You can prepare your own vanilla sugar. Simply fill a clean, dry and empty glass with a lid with regular fine sugar and put three or four vanilla beans in it and let sit for a week. Ready to use vanilla sugar.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Black Forest Cake is probably one of the most known and liked German cakes in existence. Definitely the most famous one. You can get it in special bakeries or in German and European restaurants. But how about if you try to make it yourself? Why not.

It might not be the easiest and surely not the fastest cake you will make, but it will be a big surprise for your guests and they are going to love it. The recipe we use is easy to follow and we supported the process with photos.

As always, you can send us questions or write comments. We also like to hear your recipe story if you like to share it.

Ingredients:

Dough (photo 1):

8 oz fine sugar

5 large eggs

8 oz. all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons baking cacao

5 tablespoons cooking water

1 pinch salt

Filling (photo 1+ 2):

2 pounds heavy whipping cream

1 container tart cherry pie filling

6 tablespoon Brandy or cherry Schnapps,

1 2

Decoration (photo 2)

Maraschino cherries and dark chocolate (dove)

1. Prepare a spring form (10 inch) with baking wax paper. Only the bottom of the form.

Do not grease the inside of the spring form with any fat.

2. Preheat the oven to 340°F.

3. Put eggs and sugar in a big bowl and stir until the color becomes light yellow (A).Bring a cup of water to boil and add 5 tablespoons to bowl. Stir at least 10 minutes. The longer you stir the eggs with the water and sugar the fluffier the dough will come out in the end.

Mix the flour with baking powder, pinch of salt and baking cacao and strain it into the bowl with the eggs mix (B). Carefully mix the flour etc. with a dough scraper under the sugar/egg mixture (C).

A B C

Fill the dough in the prepared spring form and bake in the oven middle for about 18 minutes. Make the dough test with a stick after 15 minutes. Try three or four different points in and around the center of the cake dough (D).

D

If the cake has a good color and nothing sticks to the stick take the cake out. Let it cool down on a rack, best over night but at least for one or two hours..

4. Then take the cake out of the form and slice two times so you have three equally thick pieces (E, this is tough, do the best you can with large sharp knife).

E

5. Whip the heavy whipping cream ( try not to supplement because of taste and thickness) with a package of vanilla sugar for each pound until it is nice and solid.

When you can turn the bowl with the whipping cream and it does not move the cream is perfect( F).

F

Please do this carefully. Sometimes it looks okay on the top but is still fluid on the bottom.

6. Put 5 to 6 tablespoons of Brandy ( the Brandy is for the typical taste of it. It is only a small quantity) on the first layer (try to distribute it equally) and then spread the cherry filling on the same layer(G). Put the second layer on the cherries and put whipping cream on it. Make sure you put it on thick enough. You want to a) that it looks good and b) that one can taste the whipping cream. Next put the third layer on top of the whipping cream and also cover the last layer with whipping cream. You now have the following order :

7. Cover all sites with whipping cream, trying to distribute it as equal as possible. We found it is best to use a rubber spreader (H) and add little swirls around the outside as seen in H as well.

8. If you chocolate is not graded or cut, do so with a rough grader or a peeling knife and spread it over the entire cake the center having more and then be lighter towards the outside of the cake. Also cover the swirls (I).

9. Last add the Maraschino cherries as seen on photo J.

H I J

You are done! Congratulations you just made your first Black Forest Cake and surely it turned out great.

Keep the cake refrigerated. It tastes best after at least one night in the refrigerator ( that is our personal taste. You can also serve it right after finishing it if you desire).

After doing it for a few times, you will, as with all things, get better at it. Also you will find the right amount of Brandy you will put it. As mentioned before. Cherry Liquor goes as well. You can let your imagination work, but we like the original taste absolutely best.

Monday, July 1, 2013

It is crucial to understand, that there is a distinct difference between Wiener Schnitzel and Schnitzel Wiener Art ( Schnitzel Vienna Style).
You will enjoy this recipe.

Little Schnitzel Vienna Style with eggs and capers

This is a fast to prepare dish which is very popular. My Mom used to make them warm the exact same way we show here. We had them for a quick lunch, easy dinner and sometimes even took them on the road. Even cold they taste great and make a tasty snack while travelling.

Ingredients for 2 people (adjust accordingly when serving more people)

As a lunch snack we did not serve anything with it. For dinner we alternated between roasted potatoes, salad, rice or mashed potatoes - all of those sides are listed separate -.

Instructions

Put one large egg in a soup plate and stir it with a fork or with a whisk until egg white and yolk are completely mixed.

In another soup plate put the plain bread crumbs.

We use plain bread crumbs to keep the taste of the meat more dominant. Some bread crumb mixes contain so much salt and other spices that you lose the natural taste of the meat in combination with the egg ( but you can if you want use spiced crumbs or add some salt and pepper to your liking).

Dab the pork loins with a paper towel and then roll them one after another in the stirred egg.

Before you roll it in the bread crumbs, let the egg drip off well over the soup plate. You want it covered so the bread crumbs will stick, but want it lightly covered.

Next cover both side of the Schnitzel nicely but not too thick with bread crumbs, laying it in the crumbs and padding it down a little with the back of your hand.

Put all breaded pieces on a plate. That will make sure the breading will bond a little bit.

Add vegetable oil to two frying pans and heat them both on highest temperature until very hot. Put the Schnitzel in one of them and turn the heat down to 4 ( or to a medium heat that oil stays hot and meat can cook ) and fry them until golden brown from each site.The thin Schnitzel do not take long to be cooked. So make sure you only do about 1 to 2 minutes each side to avoid that they dry out.

While the Schnitzels are cooking crack all four eggs and put in a second pan. Cook to your liking (we like it over easy). Add some salt and pepper as you desire.

Take pan fried Schnitzel and put 2 on each plate. With some garnish that already makes a nice appetizer or snack. You can also let them cool off and take them to work, on the golf course, to school or to work. They taste warm and cold.

Tip: Eat them with German Mustard! Tastes great. I prefer hot mustard but medium is just as good.

If you are working on the complete deal with eggs follow the next few simple steps.

Cover each Schnitzel with 1 egg and garnish with capers. You can also garnish the plate with some parsley and tomato.

There we go. A fast, easy and great tasting lunch snack: Little Schnitzel Vienna Style.

- There is a big difference between Wienerschnitzel and Schnitzel Vienna Style! I will elaborate on that in a different article -.

As I wrote above you can add sides to this simple meal to make it a full dinner or full lunch..

On this specific occasion we simply had a Rucola Tomato Salad with Onions. Dressing was vinegar, oil and salt and pepper. We use white Balsamic vinegar often - it is smooth and great tasting. Only the best olive oil is good for salad.

What do you drink with it?

Well, if you are having a dinner, a cold German beer always goes with it. Red wine is certainly an option. It should not be to try, as the capers already give you some bite and saltiness.

Naturally you can have any non- alcoholic beverage with it. Water or sparkling water being the best option. It will keep your taste buds focused on the food.

Guten Appetit!

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